Ferrari has not achieved top glory in the F1 World Championship since 2007, with Kimi Raikkonen’s title, or since 2008 in the Constructors’ World Championship. The new era of regulations launched in 2022 has given the Italians a new chance to lead. They started with the best car at the start of the 2022 season, but the car has a developmental limit that Red Bull’s concept doesn’t have. While those from Milton Keynes overtook the Ferrari in the middle of the course and got away, the ones in red stopped. For 2023, Ferrari decided to continue betting on its 2022 concept, but making it perfect. But that is not enough.
In the 2023 season, the red car was a real one-lap bullet on many circuits, but it melted from the start of the race. Its ideal window of use is very small. In very specific conditions, it is very fast. Outside of them, it is diluted. He was particularly affected by greater tire wear at race speeds. And so, Red Bull is impossible to beat. Ferrari improved throughout the year and that helped aim for podiums and in an impressive victory by Carlos Sainz in Singapore, the only one in red all year and the only non-Red Bull in all of 2023. And after this massive blow of reality, those from Maranello focused on creating another car for 2024.
They realized that the 2023 car, the evolution of the same 2022 concept, had reached its limit and the car had to be completely changed. Enrico Cardile, head of Ferrari’s chassis department, acknowledged this in statements to the ‘Motorsport.com’ portal, admitting that the 2024 car will be a different concept with which to “turn the page.”
“The 2023 car is built on the basis of the 2022 car, trying to improve some limitations of the previous car”, he recalled. “Overall, our goal was met because the car on the track behaved exactly as it was built. The problem was that we soon realized that the direction we were going was not the best, so we internally reviewed our goals for aerodynamic development. The first step was the spring package, where we changed the floor and body, followed by another step we did in Austria. But then we come to architectural limitations or what we can do with the chassis,” he argues.
“The limitations are mainly in the chassis, because the main difference between our car and the Red Bull is in the radiator inlet and in the design of the sides, we have a wider configuration than them,” expressed.
“When you decide that to achieve a different goal you need a different shape, those two facts, the position of the electronics and the design of the chassis, and the lower position of the Side Impact Structure (SIS) quickly become limit In our case that “It would involve a new chassis and a new gearbox, basically a completely new car, which is unrealistic to create in the same year.”he added.
In this sense, Cardile is confident that by changing the concept, Ferrari will be able to improve the large tire wear they have experienced this year.
“With the car of 2024, we turn the page”
“We think we know why our performance was worse in the race and, for us, it is related to how the car is made aerodynamically and the maximum downforce we can have. The problem with the tire wear is how the car works, and how the car performs depends entirely on the aerodynamic behavior “Everything depends on aerodynamics, unless the suspension design is very wrong.”he declared.
“With the car of 2024 we turn the page”, he insisted. “We kept the goal we set for ourselves, but we understood that to achieve it we need different things. So next year’s car will be designed differently from 2022.”argument.
The Italian team has to find a concept of a fast car in a corner and in the race, perhaps more like that of Red Bull, knowing at the same time that if they do that, those from Milton Keynes have two year advantage in terms of experience with a concept that will be new for Ferrari. However, the example of McLaren, which changed its car concept in the middle of the season, which continues to manage to place itself as the second best car after Red Bull, seems to mark the path of Ferrari and serves as a good example.
From here, Ferrari will have to focus mainly on expanding the window of work where the car can get a lot of potential. “The overall performance is probably not miles away from Red Bull, but we need full commitment from the drivers, the right conditions, the right combination of corners…” said Cardile. That is, the 2023 Ferrari was fast in very specific conditions, something they don’t want to repeat for 2024.
“We need a lot of things that make it difficult to repeat performance during a race, when the tires start to give and the balance of the car changes. The impression we have is that Red Bull’s platform is more stable than ours. Red Bull shows that it’s not impossible (have a car that works well in many conditions and tracks). It’s just a matter of working towards the right goals.”Cardile concluded.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
